New Releases by Lois McMaster Bujold

One of the most honored authors in the field of fantasy and science fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold transports us once more to a dark and troubled land and embroils us in a desperate struggle to preserve the endangered souls of a realm. Three years have passed since the widowed Dowager Royina Ista found release from the curse of madness that kept her imprisoned in her family''s castle of Valenda. Her newfound freedom is costly, bittersweet with memories, regrets, and guilty secrets -- for she knows the truth of what brought her land to the brink of destruction. And now the road -- escape -- beckons. . . . A simple pilgrimage, perhaps. Quite fitting for the Dowager Royina of all Chalion. Yet something else is free, too -- something beyond deadly. To the north lies the vital border fortress of Porifors. Memories linger there as well, of wars and invasions and the mighty Golden General of Jokona. And someone, something, watches from across that border -- humans, demons, gods. Ista thinks her little party of pilgrims wanders at will. But whose? When Ista''s retinue is unexpectedly set upon not long into its travels, a mysterious ally appears -- a warrior nobleman who fights like a berserker. The temporary safety of her enigmatic champion''s castle cannot ease Ista''s mounting dread, however, when she finds his dark secrets are entangled with hers in a net of the gods'' own weaving. In her dreams the threads are already drawing her to unforeseen chances, fateful meetings, fearsome choices. What the inscrutable gods commanded of her in the past brought her land to the brink of devastation. Now, once again, they have chosen Ista as their instrument. And again, for good or for ill, she must comply.

“A saga of daring deeds and unlikely romance.” —Library Journal One of the most respected writers in the field of speculative fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold has won numerous accolades and awards, including the Nebula and Locus Awards as well as the fantasy and science fiction genre’s most prestigious honor, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, four times (most recently for Paladin of Souls). With The Sharing Knife series, Bujold creates a brand new world fraught with peril, and spins an extraordinary romance between a young farm girl and the brave sorcerer-soldier entrusted with the defense of the land against a plague of vicious malevolent beings. Legacy continues the tale of Fawn Bluefield and Dag Redwing Hickory—the dangerous repercussions of their rebellious marriage and the strengthening of their love in the face of dark magic—as duty and disaster call the Lakewalker patroller away from his new bride and toward a peril that could forever alter the lovers and their world.

“Bujold builds a better fantasy romance with compelling characters and the fascinating clash between their cultures, she a farmer’s daughter, he an adventurer on the trail of a deadly demon.”—Locus One of the most respected writers in the field of speculative fiction, Lois McMaster Bujold has won numerous accolades and awards, including the Nebula and Locus Awards as well as the fantasy and science fiction genre’s most prestigious honor, the Hugo Award for Best Novel, four times (most recently for Paladin of Souls). With The Sharing Knife series, Bujold creates a brand new world fraught with peril, and spins an extraordinary romance between a young farm girl and the brave sorcerer-soldier entrusted with the defense of the land against a plague of vicious malevolent beings. Meet Fawn Bluefield and Dag Redwing Hickory in Beguilement, the first book in Bujold’s unforgettable four-volume fantasy saga, and witness the birth of their dangerous romance—a love threatened by prejudice and perilous magic, and by Dag’s sworn duty as Lakewalker patroller and necromancer.

Now at the end of their river journey, Dag and Fawn must retrace their steps. But what should be the destination? And are Dag''s magical powers now strong enough to face the final danger?

The newly married Fawn and Dag arrive at Dag''s Lakewalker home only to be met with prejudice and suspicion, a challenge that threatens the couple with exile before Dag is called upon to investigate a magical attack on a farming community.

In the third volume of Bujold''s Sharing Knife saga, Fawn, a young farm girl, and Dag, a seasoned soldier-sorcerer, set off to find fresh solutions to the perilous split between their peoples.

If his enemies would just leave him alone, Miles Vorkosigan (alias Admiral Naismith) decided bitterly, the Dendarii Free Mercenary Fleet would collapse all on its own. But his enemies were plotting a more deadly fall. For some unexplained reason the Dendarii payroll is missing and the orders from the Barrayaran Imperial Command are being delayed by Miles''s superior, Captain Galeni. What connects the impeccable insufferable Captain Galeni and the Komarran rebel expatriates on Earth anyway? But the most deadly question of all before Miles is more personal: are Miles''s two identities, Admiral Naismith of the Dendarii and Lieutenant Lord Vorkosigan of Barrayar, splitting apart along the lines of his divided loyalties? And who is trying to assassinate which version of him? When Miles unravels the answers, then the complications really begin.

Depuis que la Royina Ista a rencontré les dieux, tout le monde la tient, à tort, pour folle. Un pèlerinage devient le prétexte idéal pour quitter l''atmosphère étouffante du château de Valenda, où le confinement et la condescendance de ses gardiens commençaient à lui peser. Mais si Ista se réjouit davantage de la liberté retrouvée qu''elle ne se soucie des dieux, ces derniers ne l''ont pas oubliée, car en brisant la malédiction qui menaçait sa lignée, Ista a libéré un mal incontrôlable. Et maintenant c''est elle, la folle, qui doit sauver Chalion.

Follows: Paladin of souls.

Collects three previously published Miles Vorkosigan stories, united by the themes of gender, reproduction, and bioethics.

Relive the adventures of Miles and Mark in the first of The Vorkosigan Series. "Bujold has created two of the most engaging, interesting, complicated protagonists in science fiction . . . readers will enjoy this book". VOYA.

Spring in Vorbarr Sultana sends its inhabitants looking for love, which too often proves to be unrequited.

An anthology of science fiction stories features women in military roles

The exciting follow-up to Brothers in Arms. Miles Vorkosigan is in trouble. His brother, a cloned stranger formed from tissue stolen from Miles when he was a child, wants to murder and replace him. Unfortunately, Mark has learned that without Miles, he is . . . nothing.